UK SPACE CONFERENCE 2025 INITIATIVES

Travel

We would like to encourage all attendees to make their way to Mancester and the venue as sustainabily as possible. Manchester has great public transport links with regions all across the country from as far afield as Scotland, South Wales, and London. Sustainable travel within the city couldn't be easier with options for cycle hire, buses, and trams. Visit our Plan your visit page to see what public transport options are available and may suit your needs. 

Lanyards

Lanyards will be made from recycled materials, and collected in at the end of the event for recycling. Please make sure to deposit yours into the bins provided after your final exit from the event. 

Water bottles

All attendees are encouraged to bring their own reuseable water bottle.

The exhibition build

100% adoption of plug and play electrical systems throughout delivering zero waste in terms of cabling, wiring or fittings.

Zero use of paint or wet trades onsite.

Adoption of reusable and sustainable beMatrix walling system where possible.

Fabric used across the event is from PONGS®, where they use innovative sustainable technologies to produce climate neutral textiles for the digital printing industry.

Reusing graphic treatments where possible and if not possible, repurposing. Any logos/text are shredded and used as the filling for floor puffs and cushions. The rest of the usable fabric is given new life by being made into bags, pencil cases, boxes and more!

All inventory delivered from a single hub, minimising the need for unnecessary and wasteful vehicle movements, reducing the logistics CO2 footprint.

Not carpeting aisles to reduce carbon footprint.

MANCHESTER CENTRAL INITIATIVES

Energy

Manchester Central has installed electric vehicle charging points into it's car park. 

There are 160 Smart metres across the building. All electricity, water and gas usage is monitored effectively in order to see where reductions can be made. 

Dimmable LED lighting has been installed in over 90% of the venue.

Passive infrared sensors (PIRs) have been fitted throughout the venue which turn lights on and off upon the detection of body movement.

Manchester Central is the host site for the Civic Quarter Heat Network (CQHN), which generates low-carbon heat and power for the city, helping Manchester to reach its ambition to be carbon-neutral by 2038. The network will generate a highly efficient, environmentally friendly heat and power solution, serving six of the city’s most iconic buildings.

Food and drink

Where possible, any unutilised food is donated to local charities:

• Left-over, packaged food is donated to the Mustard Tree or Homeless Project
• Raw/unprepped food i.e. fruit and veg is donated to Open Kitchen MCR
• Hot food from i.e. from buffets is donated to Eat Well

All herbs are grown in house via their herb cultivator. 

All catering menus are inspired by North West produce, such as Martins Bakers and Birtwistles Butchers, and a majority of suppliers are no more than 50 miles away in order to reduce food miles. 

Manchester Central purifies and bottles water onsite using reusable glass bottles. They’ve also installed water fountains in both the Central and Charter Foyers and all of the office spaces. This has helped to eliminate more than 5,000 bottles per year and encourages their team and visitors to say no to single-use plastic bottles.

They have made a commitment to reduce single use plastic - straws and cutlery have already been eliminated.

Re-usable cups are sold across the venue retail points with profits going to the “We love Manchester charity”. They also offer a £0.25 discount to guests who have their own re-usable cups.

Waste management

Manchester Central aims to divert all waste from landfill. After removing all recyclables from their waste, anything non-recyclable is compacted into bales and transported to a Combined Heat and Power Facility. Here, energy is harvested from the residual waste to produce electricity and also steam which produces thermal heating.

Kitchen and plate waste is sent to anaerobic digestion (AD produces biogas, a methane-rich gas that can be used as a fuel, and digestate, a source of nutrients that can be used as a fertiliser).

Manchester Central have recently invested in some new waste equipment within the recycling centre, which allows them to further improve their waste monitoring processes:

• a set of scales that allows them to provide waste figures per event. Each individual bin is weighed and assigned to an event, before being taken offsite.
• installed a general waste compactor, which has helped them to reduce waste collections from three per week, to three per month on average, this has helped reduce transport and carbon emissions.
• installed a Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR) compactor, which allows them to crush all recyclable waste on site, meaning collections can be made in volume.

For more information about sustainability at Manchester Central, please visit their website. You can also find out more about the Zero Carbon Manchester plan outlined by Manchester City Council.